TEAC is a Japanese company dating back from the early fifties. It was formed after a joint venture between the Tokyo Television Acoustic Company and the Tokyo Electro Acoustic Company and since 1964 both companies have been operating under the name TEAC.

As early as the mid-sixties, TEAC introduced the first professional tape storage drive for computers. In relatively short succession this was followed by all of the storage media used in electronic data processing today. With the first 5.25″ disc drive in the world (1978) and one of the first 3.5″ floppy drives (1983) standards were being set. Today, the TEAC group employs more than 1.200 people on all continents.

So much for the history lesson straight from the TEAC website. A lot has happened since TEAC was formed and now it presents its latest CD-RW drive, the CD-W540E. The drive can write discs at 40x, re-write them at 12x and read them at 48x and it can/should thus compete with the fastest drives available today.

In this review we’ll test the drive at the claimed speeds and compare it to ’standard’ 32x recorders. Is 40x really a lot faster for instance? How about the drive’s abilities to cope with the various copy-protections used nowadays? Read on and find out!

Test Machine:

For the tests we’ll be using the following configuration:

Hardware:

Processor: AMD Athlon 700Mhz
Motherboard: ASUS K7V
RAM: 256MB (PC133)
Harddisk: Maxtor 30GB 7200rpm (UDMA 66)

System set-up:

Software:

OS: Windows ME
VIA 4in1 Drivers: v3.37

As you can see the TEAC CD-W540E was set-up as MASTER on the Secondary IDE Channel and identifies itself as “TEAC CD-W540E”. DMA (Direct Memory Access) and Autorun were enabled for every device.

Used Software:

For the tests we’ll be using the following software:

Now let’s take a look at the package of the TEAC CD-W540E…

The Package

19 Comments

OC-Freak: Posts: 5644; Posted on: 05 Apr 02 21:21

Oh crap, why did I let you get this drive?:c I also want it!!! Great review, hopefully my next review(whenever that will be....) will also reach this quality level, although I have my doubts about that.

Ian: Posts: 160; Posted on: 05 Apr 02 22:05

Great review G@M3FR3@K!

Max1: Posts: 6; Posted on: 05 Apr 02 22:54

How is it possible that the included Feurio 1.63 and 1.64 support Teac540E? Is there any way to support this writer under Feurio already? How many DAE speeds has to choose? Noisy? It seems my next writer.

guest: Posts: 15288; Posted on: 05 Apr 02 23:16

Feurio does not support the TEAC CD-W540E yet so we didn't test this. However support will probably be added soon enough (CD-W524E is supported already) with a Feurio drive update. The Feurio software is just part of the TEAC 'For Your Information' disc included with many TEAC drives. The noise the drive produces is not too much but don't think it'll be quiet

What can you expect with 40x writing and 48x reading? Thanks for the compliments guys

Oh and ps: sorry OC... :g

guest: Posts: 15288; Posted on: 06 Apr 02 12:09

About the buffer in Nero: Teac actaully has 8 MB buffer, but part of it is used by the drive itself. Unlike other manufacturers, which report complete buffer size, TEAC only reports 'usable' size.

pcguy99: Posts: 4; Posted on: 06 Apr 02 16:40

In the review there is a reference in the Features section under the Write Method that says " "which writing methods the Mitsumi use" Should that not be Teac? Also the warranty period of two years is only available in Europe correct?

guest: Posts: 15288; Posted on: 06 Apr 02 16:40

Thanks jernej and pcguy99 : updated the article.

Wookie: Posts: 7097; Posted on: 09 Apr 02 00:20

Again great article GF!

guest: Posts: 15288; Posted on: 09 Apr 02 22:29

The Teac CD-W540E can be found on Pricewatch.com for $95-US as of 4-9-2002 :4

guest: Posts: 15288; Posted on: 10 Apr 02 06:59

Great review: How noisy is it compared to say the 24x plex or 24x lite-on? [both are reportedly "quiet" and I guess vibration free]. I'm considering all 3 of these drives. I'm also going to a 1-drive soln for read and write to save a slot for something else. [I don't care about 48x read - infact I'd prefer a quieter and slower reader] Main desire is "quality writing" for data. I'm even planning to run it "below max speed" to help out with quality burns. Main concern on the TEAC is that its claimed to be noisy. And maybe it also vibrates [most vibrate when they are noisy] which could lead to write errors. Neg: on the lite-on is reading no-perfect CDs is a problem. and maybe it does not last as long as the plex and teac. neg: on plex [no gaming safe disc >2.5] All of these drives are within 30 bucks of each other. So considering w/o regard to cost which would you get. It seems the 40x teac has the blood-line to give better 40x burns, but I don't care about "speed, rather quality" and would downshift to lower speeds. Vibration free is highly desired.

guest: Posts: 15288; Posted on: 10 Apr 02 07:18

but I don't care about "speed, rather quality" and would downshift to lower speeds. ======== sorry that should have read but I don't care about "speed" that effects "quality" and would probably downshift to lower speeds for important backups. Thanks.

guest: Posts: 15288; Posted on: 10 Apr 02 09:52

Well the TEAC drive is far from quiet but I can say its main focus is quality as you can see by the various techniques it offers (Running OPC, Fine Focus Control, see page 3). However when it comes to backing-up SafeDisc 2 and above the Lite-On drive comes recommended followed by the Plextor and TEAC gets the third place. The Lite-On is the only drive that can copy SafeDisc 2 without problems. The Plextor has correct EFM encoding but has problems with SafeDisc 2.51 and the TEAC has problems with all SafeDisc 2 versions and therefore needs help with CloneCD's AWS. If you don't care about maximum speeds and you want a drive that's not too noisy I would say go for the Plextor PX-W2410A. If you want a drive that's fast, reliable and produces quality at every write speed go for the TEAC. It will however by noisier than the 24x writers of course. The vibration of the TEAC drive is no more than 24x writers and 32x writers if you have properly attached the drive.

guest: Posts: 15288; Posted on: 17 Apr 02 03:16

oh... Crap :c i gotta get a 2nd JoB to Keep up with you guyz! -Peace & Love

cat5: Posts: 5; Posted on: 09 May 02 07:52

:c Just bought Teac 24X. Should I have waited for 40X? Does CloneCD support both? Thanks.

guest: Posts: 15288; Posted on: 14 May 02 03:15

The copy of Nero v5.5 I received with my W540E OEM drive didn't recognize the drive. I had to download v5.5.8.2 from nero.com but when it recognized the drive, I wasn't allowed to choose it. Instead I got an error message saying I had to use the recorder the program was bundled with. Does anyone know how to solve this problem? Can't wait to use these two products together as they both seem outstanding....

cat5: Posts: 5; Posted on: 26 May 02 09:45

To: etr2 I think the Nero dl is buggy. I dl'd v5.5.7.2 for my 24X. Records OK but now get sys lockup when using the Wave Editor. Try uninstalling & reinstalling Nero 5.5, then dl 5.5.8.2 again. Good luck.

guest: Posts: 15288; Posted on: 29 Jul 02 20:27

It didn't read copy-protected audio-cd's at all.I'll return the unit and go for the Plextor 40x instead.I have already returned on W540,because it started to return my cd's in small pieces.Crap!!

guest: Posts: 15288; Posted on: 27 Aug 02 13:46

Hello, Is TEAC CD-RW drive model CD-W540E provided with an digital/SPDIF output, besides normal analog one? On the left side of the analog audio output connector from the back panel is another one named "Strap S1". Is this connector for digital/SPDIF output? In the manual it says that S1 is "factory reserved"!? Anyone tried it?

guest: Posts: 15288; Posted on: 10 Nov 07 05:52

Too bad you can not get these in the USA. :c Only in the UK as far as I know.

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TEAC CD-W540E

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